CHE: Was this Latino professor racially profiled?

[mamselle]

When driving without a license, isn't one given 24 hours to appear at the station with it?

Or is that an urban legend/ regionally variable?

M.

[EdnaMode]

When driving without a license, isn't one given 24 hours to appear at the station with it?

Or is that an urban legend/ regionally variable?

M.

It may depend on where you live. About ten years ago, in my previous state, when my wallet was stolen, I reported to the DMV that my license had been stolen and I needed it replaced. I asked what to do in the meantime if I was pulled over. They said they would make some sort of note on my account that I was without license until they sent me a new one (if I remember correctly it took about ten days for it to appear in the mail) and I should drive with another form of ID, or an expired license if I happened to have one. I drove with my passport until they sent me my replacement license. I suppose I could have used my work ID (I worked for the state) or even my old student ID, as long as I had something with my name and picture on it.

[Wahoo Redux]

When driving without a license, isn't one given 24 hours to appear at the station with it?

Or is that an urban legend/ regionally variable?

M.

One would still get a citation regardless.

[marshwiggle]

He doesn't appear to have been profiled, given his "lost" ID. All he had to do was to say that despite the lost ID, he could show them some kind of proof (his keys, access to his course on Blackboard or Canvas, or some other tangible evidence that he was faculty).

I used to teach evening classes for several years in a row. I would make it a point to introduce myself to the security staff as well as to the janitors at the beginning of the semester. I recall having to ask a janitor to let me into the office because I had locked myself out.

FWIW, every once in a while a student tells me s/he asked security to let them into a locked lab because they think they left their keys, phone, laptop, etc. I'm always a little bit worried when security seems overly easy to persuade since the potential breach is significant. I've locked myself out of the office a few times, but usually during the day when I could go to the department admin assistant who knows me and who could use her key to let me back in. I would sincerely hope if I asked security to let me in they'd need pretty solid proof of who I was beyond just my word before letting me in.

[Caracal]

Nobody looks good here.  That said, it's the po po that have chosen to escalate this issue.

As always, we need to be fair. 

The po po is arguing that the officer involved did nothing wrong, he followed procedure, and now he is being accused of one of the worst things a po po can be accused of in this day and age.  The head po po argues that this could affect the little po po's career and personal life, especially since the professor went public and is getting national headlines----these are reasonable arguments.  Collegiate people sometimes throw around the "racist" label with abandon.  Doing so cost Oberlin some really bad PR and a lot of money.

The professor did not have ID in his office either.  He had no way to prove who he was.

As I understand it, the responding po po is a minority himself, making this even more fraught.

No, the cops have their point of view and are fighting back.

I once locked my keys and my wallet in my office before teaching a night class. I had to call the campus safety number to get someone to let me in so I could get home. I'm pretty sure the guy who let me in to my office never asked to see my ID. He just opened the door, I thanked him and he left. I didn't think much of it, after all he saw my keys and wallet sitting right on the desk.

It is hard to see and appreciate the absence of suspicion. It seemed unremarkable to me that the guy didn't think I was a concern. I was a flustered, slightly disheveled, tired looking doofus academic in his late 30s wearing a sport coat and holding a shoulder bag who had stupidly locked himself out of his office because he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. If I wasn't white, however, would I have been perceived in the same way? Maybe, but maybe not.

I walk around the world, and with rare exceptions, people have a pretty accurate impression of the danger I pose, and even when I'm doing something kind of weird, they tend to give me the benefit of the doubt. It has to be incredibly frustrating to be a flustered, absent minded academic like me who locked himself out of his office at an incredibly inconvenient time, and yet know that you might be perceived as somebody who might be up to something. It isn't possible to know if race played a role in this particular instance, but that's kind of the point. If a cop pulls me over, I think "crap, was I going too fast? Did I miss a stop sign? Did I forget to renew my registration?" I don't have to think "maybe they saw what I looked like and pulled me over because they think I'm a criminal."

[Caracal]

He doesn't appear to have been profiled, given his "lost" ID. All he had to do was to say that despite the lost ID, he could show them some kind of proof (his keys, access to his course on Blackboard or Canvas, or some other tangible evidence that he was faculty).

That's exactly what he did. He told them he could give them his faculty ID number, that they could look him up, and even that the guy could just walk with him to his office where he would see a bunch of pictures of him with his family up on the wall (and presumably his keys on his desk)

[Langue_doc]

He doesn't appear to have been profiled, given his "lost" ID. All he had to do was to say that despite the lost ID, he could show them some kind of proof (his keys, access to his course on Blackboard or Canvas, or some other tangible evidence that he was faculty).

That's exactly what he did. He told them he could give them his faculty ID number, that they could look him up, and even that the guy could just walk with him to his office where he would see a bunch of pictures of him with his family up on the wall (and presumably his keys on his desk)

The security person was merely following protocol. He sounds quite professional and respectful in the video.

[financeguy]

I'm actually surprised that on this issue more people aren't on the side of the cop. Every time there's a mass shooting there's a round of blame that goes around for anyone who may have broken any of the rules in black and white for access. You can either have rules you want enforced or give people discretion but you can't do both at the same time.

[dismalist]

I'm actually surprised that on this issue more people aren't on the side of the cop. Every time there's a mass shooting there's a round of blame that goes around for anyone who may have broken any of the rules in black and white for access. You can either have rules you want enforced or give people discretion but you can't do both at the same time.

Ah, but following the rules could have a disparate impact, so the rules must be changed!

Let me invoke my hobby horse of statistical discrimination symmetrically. Maybe the police would have let a white guy slide, maybe not. But look at this guy's publications: The police everywhere are bad guys, for they are in the service of the capitalist ruling class, especially of the United States! No way this guy can be clear headed when confronted with what is after all a personal problem involving the police. When a cop is in sight, this guy is a walking victim.

[Anon1787]

When the cops are fighting the people they are supposed to be serving, there is a problem.  The institution has procedures that provide due process even when the people invovled are at odds.

The police serve multiple constituencies, not just absent-minded professors (university, students and others on campus, the taxpaying public, etc.).

Faculty unions routinely complain that university due process procedures for various things are inadequate, so I don't see why the police union should behave any differently, particularly when the professor's claim is inflammatory and weak.

[Wahoo Redux]

No one and everyone is to blame here, including the system.

Watch the video.  The professor had credit cards with his name on it.  He offered to show the officer pictures on his desk of him and his family.  His interior office door was already open----it was an exterior door which was locked----so it would have been hard to believe he stopped to use the restroom in the middle of any truly nefarious activities. Plus the prof called the cops!!!  How many criminals are going to call the police, be recorded on a body cam, and then commit some felony!?

At the same time, this event is the prof's fault.  He locked himself out and lost his ID.  And the prof in question immediately flashed on the "you'd let a white professor in" line, which seems perfectly ridiculous under the circumstances.  He has spent a good deal of his scholarly time investigating racism, and for some people their particular angle will color everything in their lives.

The two problems as I see it are A) the professor had a kneejerk, stereotypical reaction after doing a series of dumb things but becoming understandably frustrated by the situation; and B) the police officer in question was not given leeway to follow good common sense.

And I would be leery of making too many comparisons to our own experiences one way of the other.  I was once threatened with arrest by an initially aggressive but then polite police officer in grad school because I brought my little dog to campus and was working in the computer lab; the janitor called the cops on me.  I think the officer was a little embarrassed when he saw my little Benji-like mutt, but there were rules to be followed.

I cannot see the police officer did in anything wrong in this situation, and I believe the professor is attempting to leverage the current tenor of racial tension because he is (perhaps understandably) paranoid.   

[mamselle]

The (understandably) paranoid part is the important point.

Getting killed after a traffic stop, or the fear of that happening, is not the usual experience of white people.

Any interaction with the law is automatically dangerous for non-white people.

If you're not in that demographic, or haven't been close to those who are, you won't get it.

M.

[Anon1787]

Watch the video.  The professor had credit cards with his name on it.  He offered to show the officer pictures on his desk of him and his family.  His interior office door was already open----it was an exterior door which was locked----so it would have been hard to believe he stopped to use the restroom in the middle of any truly nefarious activities. Plus the prof called the cops!!!  How many criminals are going to call the police, be recorded on a body cam, and then commit some felony!?

...I cannot see the police officer did in anything wrong in this situation, and I believe the professor is attempting to leverage the current tenor of racial tension because he is (perhaps understandably) paranoid.   

I find it understandable that the professor not having any official ID available would make the officer skeptical and not want to go to the trouble of figuring out an acceptable alternate ID and instead passed the buck to his supervisor. There are plenty of stupid criminals (IIRC, Jay Leno did a segment on stupid criminals), student pranksters, etc.

As a matter of fact, it's not very understandable to fear being shot by the police though it may be more understandable to fear police harassment (see Roland Fryer's data). Of course nothing of the sort happened in this instance. So, yes, the professor is exploiting the situation and being cheered on by fellow faculty who share his priors.

[Wahoo Redux]

The (understandably) paranoid part is the important point.

Getting killed after a traffic stop, or the fear of that happening, is not the usual experience of white people.

Any interaction with the law is automatically dangerous for non-white people.

If you're not in that demographic, or haven't been close to those who are, you won't get it.

M.

The prof was never in danger.  He never claimed he was in danger.  He claimed that the police officer, who is of Asian heritage, would not let him in his office.

I think we all get it.  That is not fair to say.

Getting it is not the same as believing every accusation, however.

And false accusations of racism, just like when Rolling Stone makes headlines for publishing false accusations of rape, really, really hurts those people who make legitimate complaints about racist behavior.

[marshwiggle]

Getting killed after a traffic stop, or the fear of that happening, is not the usual experience of white people.

For anyone who has been stopped more than twice for traffic stops, getting killed cannot be the usual experience.

And there is no group of people for whom getting killed is the usual experience. (I'd guess people who happen to be fleeing a crime but who get stopped don't even usually get killed.)